Rhetoric is and always has been a very powerful way to persuade people sadly, unscrupulous and opportunistic people will always use it, whether they are politicians or news outlets. Though fact checking is now perhaps easier for most people than ever before, many people don’t seem to bother, and stick with stories, narratives and claims that best reflect their own broader viewpoints. This inbuilt bias is present in us all of course, it is up to us as individuals to fact check information we receive, and of course doubly so if we know we would usually be biased either for or against a particular claim or idea.
Handy tip, though more extreme views may be anathema to us, don’t simply dismiss claims because you view the source as unreliable, rather be dubious but check the facts behind each claim.
Well there you go, that is exactly what I meant there, if we want believe or accept only things that are true, then we set a higher standard for belief, and withhold belief until that is satisfied. The hardest part is avoiding inbuilt bias we all have against certain types of ideas. It’s not always easy, so I try always to be willing to revisit things and evaluate them again if any evidence makes this necessary. We can’t avoid innate bias, but we can try and guard against it unduly influencing our conclusions.